How to Connect Zendesk to Google Sheets

Zendesk's API is capable and well documented, and two specific things account for most of the time people lose with it. Authentication needs a /token suffix on the username that is easy to miss and produces an unhelpful 401, and the familiar offset pagination stops dead at 10,000 records, which is a wall any established help desk hits. This guide handles both, plus the incremental export endpoint built for exactly that volume problem.

The built-in option: Zendesk Explore

Explore is Zendesk's own reporting tool and can export any report to CSV or Excel. If your question is a standard support metric, first response time, resolution time, volume by channel, building it in Explore and exporting is quicker than anything involving the API. Scheduled delivery of those reports is limited to higher plans, and getting the output into Sheets still means importing a file.

Zendesk to Google Sheets for free (Apps Script + REST API)

Enable token access under Admin Center → Apps and integrations → APIs → Zendesk API and create an API token. Your subdomain is the first part of your Zendesk URL.

The authentication format is the thing to get right. Zendesk expects basic auth where the username is [email protected]/token, literally with /token appended, and the password is the API token. Omit the suffix and you get a 401 that looks like a wrong token.

For pagination, use the cursor style rather than page=N offsets. Offset paging is capped at 10,000 records and errors beyond it, whereas cursor paging with page[size] and links.next has no such ceiling.

1function importZendeskTickets() {2  const SUBDOMAIN = "yourcompany";3  const EMAIL = "[email protected]";4  const TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN";5 6  // The /token suffix is required. Without it this 401s with a valid token.7  const auth = "Basic " + Utilities.base64Encode(EMAIL + "/token:" + TOKEN);8  const headers = { Authorization: auth };9  const root = "https://" + SUBDOMAIN + ".zendesk.com/api/v2";10 11  // Custom fields come back as numeric IDs. Map them to titles once.12  const fieldTitles = {};13  JSON.parse(UrlFetchApp.fetch(root + "/ticket_fields.json", { headers })14    .getContentText()).ticket_fields.forEach((f) => {15      fieldTitles[f.id] = f.title;16    });17 18  const rows = [];19  // Cursor pagination. Offset paging (page=N) breaks past 10,000 records.20  let url = root + "/tickets.json?page[size]=100";21 22  while (url) {23    const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, { headers, muteHttpExceptions: true });24    if (response.getResponseCode() !== 200) {25      throw new Error(response.getResponseCode() + ": " + response.getContentText());26    }27 28    const body = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());29 30    body.tickets.forEach((t) => {31      const custom = (t.custom_fields || [])32        .filter((f) => f.value !== null && f.value !== "")33        .map((f) => (fieldTitles[f.id] || f.id) + ": " + f.value)34        .join("; ");35 36      rows.push([37        t.id,38        t.subject,39        t.status,40        t.priority || "",41        t.via ? t.via.channel : "",       // email, chat, web, api…42        t.created_at,43        t.updated_at,44        (t.tags || []).join(", "),45        custom,46      ]);47    });48 49    // meta.has_more tells you whether to follow links.next.50    url = (body.meta && body.meta.has_more) ? body.links.next : null;51    if (url) Utilities.sleep(300);52  }53 54  const header = ["ID","Subject","Status","Priority","Channel",55                  "Created","Updated","Tags","Custom fields"];56  const ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();57  const sheet = ss.getSheetByName("Tickets") || ss.insertSheet("Tickets");58  sheet.clearContents();59  sheet.getRange(1, 1, 1, header.length).setValues([header]);60  if (rows.length) {61    sheet.getRange(2, 1, rows.length, header.length).setValues(rows);62  }63}

For full history on an established help desk, switch to the incremental export endpoint at /api/v2/incremental/tickets.json with a start_time. It returns up to 1,000 tickets per page plus an end_time to feed into the next run, so each scheduled import only fetches what changed. It is rate limited to roughly 10 requests a minute, which is the trade for its bulk capability.

Limits: Apps Script stops at six minutes, and Zendesk's rate limits vary by plan, from a few hundred requests a minute upward. Ticket comments and satisfaction ratings need separate calls per ticket, which is impractical at volume without the incremental endpoints.

The Brooked method

Brooked authenticates correctly, uses cursor pagination so the 10,000 record ceiling never applies, and resolves custom field IDs and dropdown tag values to their display names. Tickets, users, organizations and satisfaction ratings can all land in one spreadsheet on a single schedule.

Step 1: Install Brooked

Install Brooked from the Google Workspace Marketplace. Free tier includes 100 imports per month, no credit card required.

Step 2: Connect Zendesk

Choose Zendesk in Brooked, enter your subdomain, the email address of an agent account, and an API token. Then pick tickets, users or organizations, optionally filter by view or date range, and import.

Step 3: Schedule the refresh

Set the import to re-run hourly or daily. Support tickets change state constantly, so a scheduled re-read keeps status, assignee and resolution columns accurate rather than frozen at the moment each ticket was created.

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Method comparison

Common use cases

• Support KPIs: first response and resolution times by channel, team or priority
• SLA monitoring: find tickets approaching or past their target and alert on them
• Volume forecasting: ticket counts by week to plan staffing
• Product feedback: group tickets by tag to find what keeps generating contacts
• Account health: join ticket volume against revenue data already in the sheet

Troubleshooting common issues

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Frequently asked questions